Our next destination after our tour was Cap Ferret,  near Bordeaux, to see our friends José-Maria and Agnès. There is no direct flight from Bilbao to Bordeaux, so we had to fly to Madrid first. We were leaving before breakfast, so our hotel provided us with a “picnic” to take with us. In our brown paper bags, we found a banana, an apple, a bikini (that’s what the locals call a ham and cheese sandwich), a croissant, and bottles of water and peach juice. At the airport we put our luggage on the conveyor belt and ate some of our portable breakfast.

We had to walk the entire length of the Madrid airport to get to our gate. The  flight from Bilbao to Madrid took seventy minutes, and from Madrid to Bordeaux, fifty minutes. José-Maria greeted us warmly at the airport. He and Nick determined that they met forty-eight years ago when they both worked for National CSS. José-Maria drove us to his summer home in Cap Ferret, where Agnès was waiting for us.

It was so wonderful for the four us to be together again. We did lots of catching up on what has been happening with our families since we saw each other last. We learned that their summer house originally belonged to José-Maria’s grandfather many years ago when the town was a fishing village. There have been several additions to the house since then.

Cap Ferret is on a peninsula in Nouvelle-Aquitaine,  with the Bay of Arachon on its east and the Atlantic Ocean on its west. It has wonderful beaches that are ideal for swimming, surfing, and other water sports.  It was a fabulous place for us to relax after keeping such an active schedule  during our tour.

Agnès  had prepared a large salad with fresh tomatoes for our lunch. She  made sea bream and potatoes for dinner, which we all enjoyed.

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